Grain free, dairy free pancakes

These pancakes are awesome. I feel bad admitting that because we've have a family recipe passed down for many decades, but no one would guess they are grain-free and dairy-free.

There are many different options for grain free pancakes, many include bananas or coconut flour, but these mainly use almond flour and flax seed meal. The recipe we found and liked the best Came from http://www.paleoeffect.com/recipes/paleo-

pancakes-paleo-effect/

They substitute maple syrup for sugar, and also, add cinnamon to the batter. This makes a perfect cinnamonny, not too sweet flavor.

The flax seed also adds fiber to the meal as well!

We followed the recipe exactly, but made our own blackberry emulsion for the topping. It's very easy too make. Pick your favorite berries and add them to a food processor, or you can even mash them. We found that with the berry topping, no syrup was needed at all. This cuts back on your sugar intake,

All the ingredients are fairly easy to find. The almond flour, flax seed meal, and arrow root powder can be found at any grocery store with natural aisles. 

Everyone should try these just once, you will never go back to normal (hopefully not from a box) pancakes. 

Chicken Fillet with Avocado-Zucchini Pasta

Pretty easy meal today. 

1 chicken fillet (Bare is a great, no hormones, no by-products, no antibiotics, and humane source)

1 bell pepper

1 zucchini

1 avocado

1 garlic clove

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

A few baby spinach leaves

Arugula

Salt & Pepper (+ any other desired seasonings)

Coconut Oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

First, I used a julienne peeler on one whole zucchini (you can use yellow squash as well) put it in a colander to let the water drain from it while I made the avocado sauce.

For the sauce, I used my magic bullet to blend the avocado with some fresh baby spinach leaves, one garlic clove, dash of onion powder and black pepper. (You may need to add some EVOO to thin the sauce out)

Next, I tossed the zucchini "noodles" in EVOO with a bit of salt and pepper on medium heat in a pan for about five minutes. I mixed in the avocado sauce and let that sit while I cooked the chicken.

The chicken filet was cooked in coconut oil and some salt and pepper - nothing crazy. I put it on top of arugula just for the extra zest.

I put the zucchini pasta in a raw bell pepper (I prefer the raw taste rather than cooked, plus you aren't cooking off any micronutrients eating your veggies raw)

Wah-la. 

Those sweet potatoes though...

Sweet potato. Oh how I've had a huge misconception of what you tasted like up until recently. I was introduced to sweet potatoes in dumpling form, loaded with butter and brown sugar and HATED them. Then, I tried them loaded with butter and bourbon in mashed form.... even worse. Finally, I had just a plain old yam with some S&P. They're almost addicting now for me. I can't wait for the fall when they're in season for the midwest. They are so good just cooked off by themselves, awesome low-glycemic carb, loaded with vitamin A, good amount of B6. Pretty impressive for being so ugly on the outside. Anyhow, I decided to make a hash out of them for breakfast, and it turned out extremely well. All I did was thinly slice the amount of sweet potato that looked close to filling for me, tossed it in coconut oil in a skillet,  added some bacon, garlic and onion powder, fresh cracked pepper, and topped it with an egg, turmeric, and avocado. This kept me satisfied for a good portion of the day. Well done baby yams, well done.

Nuts for Almonds

        As far as macronutrients in my diet, they get the job done for me as proteins and "healthy" fats. I know some almond brands advertise as being "Heart Healthy" but they hold much more value than that. If you ever want to take the wonderment out of almonds, just hop on Google. There is plenty of extensive research out there to educate yourself with. 

         Up until recently, I have just been eating raw almonds. Thinking I'm doing my body a favor, no roasted and salted or covered in chocolate, just raw. I kept seeing the term "sprouted almonds" and noticed that they are quite pricey in comparison to raw and so I did my homework and found some great info on http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html

It guess I just hadn't been putting two and two together but we soak legumes and other grains.... Why not nuts? I gave it a whirl by just soaking a bag of raw almonds in water for ten hours, then let them sit in a casserole dish to dry out for another ten hours, and WOW. The texture completely changed, they have more flavor, and I feel like I am digesting them more easily. I'm sold on the idea, go nuts.